People can sometimes participate in group experiences, such as, for example, guided tours of museums, historical locations, or other places or items of interest. Such group experiences can occur, for instance, in relation to family excursions (e.g., while on vacation), research trips or projects, school-related field trips, etc. During a group experience, one or more persons (e.g., tour guides, presenters, persons in the group with questions or comments, etc.) can be speaking or otherwise presenting information to the group of people. However, often there can be impediments that interfere with at least some people in the group being able to hear or receive the information being presented. For example, a tour guide may be leading a group of people in a tour of a point of interest, wherein the tour guide is speaking to the group to provide informative information or other desired information to the group while walking with the group through the point of interest. For a variety of reasons, such as the distance of the tour guide from certain persons in the group (e.g., certain persons are at the end of a long line of people in the group, and the tour guide is at the head of the line), the volume of the tour guide's voice, ambient noise in the area of the group, others in the group speaking at the same time as the tour guide, etc., certain persons in the group are not able to hear or receive the presentation by the tour guide, or at least have difficulty in hearing or receiving the presentation, sometimes even if the tour guide is shouting.
As another example, a tour may involve a number of points of interest over a relatively large area (e.g., a tour of Wall Street or other region of New York City), wherein the tour group attempts to follow the tour guide, who can be holding an umbrella or flag for all in the group to see so that the people in the group can stay with the group, and not fall behind the group or become lost. Here again hearing the tour guide speak over the noise of the city can be difficult, particularly if the person is towards the back of the group away from the tour guide. Further, there can be a number of different tour groups visiting the same landmark at the same time, which can make it even more difficult to hear the tour guide of a person's particular group, as the tour guides of the tour groups can be speaking loudly at the same time. Also, if there are a number of different tour groups with a number of different flags, it can be difficult for a person to identify to which group the person belongs.
Still another issue is that various tour members may come from different countries having different languages, and such tour members may not speak the same language as the tour guide. Often a tour member will only speak one language and the tour guide does not speak that language. Further, even if the tour guide is able to speak more than one language, it can take extra time for the tour guide to repeat the same information in multiple languages.
In other instances, a person may be participating in an individual tour of a point of interest (e.g., museum, aquarium, landmark, etc.). The person typically can have limited choices in such tour experience. For example, the person can have a brochure and/or map, which the person can study, and the person can tour or browse through the point of interest based on the information in the brochure, or the person can rent a wireless device (e.g., wireless device with earphones) that can act as an electronic tour guide and can guide the person through the point of interest. In the case of the latter, the wireless device may provide background explanations, historic illustrations, directions relating to the point of interest (e.g., directions to guide the person through a building), or other information relating to the point of interest. In both of these instances, there is no interaction feature provided to enable the person to solicit information, provide feedback, or otherwise actively interact with the tour experience. The tour experience is essentially uni-directional.
Yet another issue is that, during a tour, even with conventional wireless devices being employed as part of the tour, a tour guide may desire to provide additional description of a point of interest beyond what is being provided by the wireless device of the tour member, or the tour member may desire to personalize the tour by taking notes relating to the tour. However, as stated, the conventional wireless devices are essentially uni-directional in that such devices only provide predefined information to the person.
Another issue is that a person taking part in a tour (e.g., individually or as part of a group) may have particular reasons for taking part in the tour or may have certain time constraints in taking the tour. However, again, conventional wireless devices are essentially uni-directional and static in that such devices only provide predefined information to the person.
When taking a tour or engaging in another activity, wherein presentations are made, people can desire an enjoyable and informative experience. However, the aforementioned drawbacks of today's presentations (e.g., tour presentation) to a group or an individual can result in a less enjoyable experience for the person(s) participating in the presentation experience (e.g., tour). Today, there is no way to provide a desirable interactive experience during a presentation and to enhance the presentation experience of a person or group participating in the presentation experience.
The above-described deficiencies of today's systems are merely intended to provide an overview of some of the problems of conventional systems, and are not intended to be exhaustive. Other problems with the state of the art and corresponding benefits of some of the various non-limiting embodiments may become further apparent upon review of the following detailed description.